European Tramdriver Championship

The TRAM-EM European Tramdriver Championship is the European championship for competitive tram driving.

History edit

In 2012, the first Tram-EM (German: Tram-Europameisterschaft, or Tram European Championship) was created for the 140th anniversary of the Dresden tram network. The championship is hosted yearly in Europe by rotating local transit companies in cooperation with the Dresden-based production company that created the concept.

TRAM-EM has been a registered trademark since 2014.

Concept edit

The Tram-EM competition is a team competition where each team consists of one female tram driver, one male tram driver and one team supervisor. The competition is open to European public transport agencies, who may submit one team each.[1]

The championship is split into two rounds, with each driver taking the wheel once. Each round consists of 6 disciplines. The disciplines could be stopping at a target, emergency braking, measuring side clearance during a curve, stopping exactly at a tram stop, speed estimation with a hidden speedometer, precision driving past a gate, "tram billiards," or "tram bowling." The skill at each discipline, in addition to the time to complete each discipline, influences the score. The event includes a team procession, practice rounds, social events for drivers, competition, and award ceremony.

The competitions have long been tied-in to public celebrations of the hosting transit agency, such as the 140th anniversary of the Dresden tram network, the 10th anniversary of the Barcelona tram network, and the 150th anniversary of the Viennese tram network. The goal of the competition is to give tram operators an international platform to share experience.

Past events edit

Year Location Winner
2012 Dresden Budapest
2013 Budapest Paris
2014 Barcelona Parla
2015 Vienna Rotterdam
2016 Berlin Budapest
2017 Tenerife Paris
2018 Stuttgart Stockholm
2019 Brussels[2] Brussels[1]
2020 Oradea*
2021
2022 Leipzig[3] Hanover[4]
2023 Oradea[5] Vienna
2024 Frankfurt[6]

* originally postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but eventually cancelled

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Participation". TRAM EM - English. Retrieved 2022-06-01.
  2. ^ Benkert, Jonas. "What a day!". TRAM EM - English. Retrieved 2022-06-01.
  3. ^ "So war die Tram EM 2022 der LVB". www.l.de (in German). Retrieved 2022-06-01.
  4. ^ mdr.de. "Deutsches Team gewinnt Straßenbahn-Europameisterschaft in Leipzig | MDR.DE". www.mdr.de (in German). Retrieved 2022-06-01.
  5. ^ "Tram-EM in Leipzig: 47.000 Leute waren bei dem Spektakel dabei!". TAG24 (in German). Retrieved 2022-06-01.
  6. ^ "TRAM-EM 2024 comes to Frankfurt". TRAM-EM. 2023-10-04. Retrieved 2024-03-24.

External links edit